The nuances of a dog barks, howls and growls yaps apparently can now be discerned by a new computer program developed by Hungarian researchers.
The software is said to distinguish the emotional reaction of 14 dogs Mudi Hungarian breed.
After analysing 6,000 barks, it aims to determine when a dog has seen a ball, when it is fighting, playing, meeting a stranger or when it wants a walk.
But scientists admit only the technology offers better performance than humans.
While the computer correctly recognized the emotional state of 43% of dogs, humans did almost as well with 40%.
But the author of the research - Csaba Molnar, Eotvos University in Budapest - says the software can be improved, and he told, it may have applications for the analysis of human communication.
“I would say that we proved there are very strong contextual differences between the barks, but that very long further work is needed to determine which emotional states and which characteristics belong to each (different breed).
He added: “In the future we can use this software for any other vocal or any other signal categorisation.”
The scientist also believes that later versions of the software could help dog owners and trainers to identify more dogs on welfare.
“A possible commercial application could be a device for dog & human communication,” says the scientist Reuters news agency.
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Source: BBC
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